1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the construction of arrays of molecules. In particular, the invention relates to the preparation of a hydrogel surface useful in the formation and manipulation of arrays of molecules, particularly polynucleotides and to the chemical modification of these and other arrays.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advances in the study of molecules have been led, in part, by improvement in technologies used to characterize the molecules or their biological reactions. In particular, the study of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, and other large biological molecules, such as proteins, has benefited from developing technologies used for sequence analysis and the study of hybridisation events.
An example of the technologies that have improved the study of nucleic acids is the development of fabricated arrays of immobilised nucleic acids. These arrays typically consist of a high-density matrix of polynucleotides immobilised onto a solid support material. Fodor et al., Trends in Biotechnology (1994) 12:19-26, describe ways of assembling the nucleic acid arrays using a chemically sensitised glass surface protected by a mask, but exposed at defined areas to allow attachment of suitably modified nucleotides. Typically, these arrays may be described as “many molecule” arrays, as distinct regions are formed on the solid support comprising a high density of one specific type of polynucleotide.
An alternative approach is described by Schena et al., Science (1995) 270:467-470, where samples of DNA are positioned at predetermined sites on a glass, microscope slide by robotic micropipetting techniques.
A further development in array technology is the attachment of the polynucleotides to a solid support material to form single molecule arrays (SMAs). Arrays of this type are disclosed in WO00/06770. The advantage of these arrays is that reactions can be monitored at the single molecule level and information on large numbers of single molecules can be collated from a single reaction.
Although these arrays offer particular advantages in sequencing experiments, the preparation of arrays at the single molecule level is more difficult than at the multi-molecule level, where losses of target polynucleotide can be tolerated due to the multiplicity of the array. Moreover, where the sequence of a polynucleotide is determined by sequential incorporations of labelled nucleotides, a further problem which arises is the occurrence of non-specific binding of nucleotides to the array, for example to the surface of the array. There is, therefore, a constant need for improvements in the preparation of arrays of molecules, particularly polynucleotides, for example single molecule arrays of polynucleotides, for sequencing procedures.
Solid-supported molecular arrays have been generated previously in a variety of ways. Indeed, the attachment of biomolecules (such as proteins and nucleic acids, e.g. DNA) to a variety of supports/substrates (e.g. silica-based substrates such as glass or plastics or metals) underpins modern microarray and biosensor technologies employed for genotyping, gene expression analysis and biological detection.
In nearly all examples where biomolecules have been immobilised on solid supports, the attachment chemistry is designed around the support. For example, silanes (e.g. functionalised silanes such as chloro- or alkoxy-silanes) are commonly used to modify glass; thiols are often used to modify the surface of gold. A potential problem here is that the agents used to modify one surface are often unsuitable for modifying the surface of another support. For example, thiols cannot be used to modify glass, nor can silanes be used to modify gold.
Silica-based substrates such as silica or glass are often employed as supports on which molecular arrays are constructed. It would be desirable to be able to use chemistry useful in modifying such supports with other supports.
Prior to the construction of any silica-based solid-supported arrays, the support surface is generally thoroughly cleaned. With silica-based substrates, the resultant cleaned surface possesses hydroxyl groups which are either neutral and/or deprotonated and thus negatively charged. As a result there is a degree of resistance to non-specific binding of nucleotides used in sequencing experiments. Either the neutral hydroxyl groups do not attract the negatively charged nucleotides, or the deprotonated groups' negative charge serves to repel the nucleotides. Regardless, the effect of the surface towards the non-specific, and undesired, binding of nucleotides is not high and it is desirable to lessen the extent of non-specific binding in sequencing experiments. This serves to reduce background “noise” during the detection of each individual nucleotide in each step in sequencing experiments.
Another way in which polynucleotides (and other molecules) have been displayed previously on the surface of solid support is through the use of hydrogels. Molecular arrays, e.g. microarrays, of molecules, particularly polynucleotides, are of use in techniques including nucleic acid amplification and sequencing methods. In preparing hydrogel-based solid-supported molecular arrays, a hydrogel is formed and molecules displayed from it. These two features—formation of the hydrogel and construction of the array—may be effected sequentially or simultaneously.
Where the hydrogel is formed prior to formation of the array, it is typically produced by allowing a mixture of comonomers to polymerise. Generally, the mixture of comonomers contain acrylamide and one or more comonomers, the latter of which permit, in part, subsequent immobilisation of molecules of interest so as to form the molecular array.
The comonomers used to create the hydrogel typically contain a functionality that serves to participate in crosslinking of the hydrogel and/or immobilise the hydrogel to the solid support and facilitate association with the target molecules of interest.
Generally, as is known in the art, polyacrylamide hydrogels are produced as thin sheets upon polymerisation of aqueous solutions of acrylamide solution. A multiply unsaturated (polyunsaturated) crosslinking agent (such as bisacrylamide) is generally present; the ratio of acrylamide to bisacrylamide is generally about 19:1. Such casting methods are well known in the art (see for example Sambrook et al., 2001, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, 3rd Ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, NY) and need not be discussed in detail here.
As an alternative to the use of hydrogel-supported molecular arrays, the use of polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) has been reported (E. P. Kartov et al., Biotechniques (March 2003), 34:505-510; and I. Braslaysky et al., Proct Nat. Acad. Sci (1 Apr. 2003), 100 (7), 3960-3964} to allow sequencing experiments to be conducted in which fluorescently labelled molecules are incorporated into DNA strands and then identified by fluorescence microscopy. The authors report that, by using PEMs, the charge density on the surface may be tuned so as to repel labelled nucleotides selectively by constructing the PEMs such that the final layer bears a negative charge.
Accordingly, the authors describe such a PEM which, after its construction, was used in the formation of a molecular array. The latter was formed initially by biotinylating the surface using a commercially available kit (EZ-Link™ kit from Pierce Chemical (Rockford, Ill., USA)). The biotinylated PEM was then coated with Streptavidin-Plus™ (Prozyme, San Leandro, Calif., USA) to which biotinylated DNA was attached. In this way the biotinylated DNA is attached to covalently bound biotin through specific noncovalent interactions to “sandwiched” streptavidin molecules.
The authors of B. P. Kartov et al. (infra) and I. Braslaysky et al. (two authors are common to both publications) report that the final, negatively charged, polyacrylic acid layer is intended to prevent negatively charged labelled nucleotides binding to the surface. It is clear, however, that this was not successful in every instance since it is reported in I. Braslaysky et al. (infra) that the identity of the third or fourth incorporated nucleotide could not be determined (was “ambiguous”). According to the authors, this was caused by “increasing non-specific binding of unincorporated nucleotides”.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method of providing arrays of molecules, particularly polynucleotides, which arrays have a lesser tendency to interact nonspecifically with other molecules (and in particular (optionally fluorescently labelled) nucleotides used in sequencing experiments) than those available in the prior art. There is also a need for a general method for modifying a solid support to allow the preparation of supports useful in the preparation of arrays.